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Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."SPR website History The SPR was founded in 1882 in London by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick and Edmund Dawson Rogers.Grattan-Guiness, I. (1982) Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles & Practices The SPR was the first organisation of its kind in the world, its stated purpose being "to approach these varied problems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned enquiry which has enabled science to solve so many problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly debated."Grattan-Guinness, I. (1982) Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles & Practices, p. 19 Initially six committees were established: on Thought-Transference, Mesmerism and similar phenomena, Mediumship, Reichenbach Phenomena (Odic Force), Apparitions and Haunted Houses, physical phenomena associated with séances, and the Literary Committee which studied the history of these phenomena.Gauld,A. (1968) The Founders of Psychical Research One significant undertaking was the Census of Hallucinations, in which 15,000 people were asked to report on hallucinatory experiences while awake and in good health. Some 10% of those reported such experiences, and a small number of 'veridical hallucinations' were reported - that is, hallucinations which appeared to convey information not known to the person hallucinating at the time, which was believed by the authors to be suggestive of telepathy."Report of the Census of Hallucinations." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 10 (1894): 25. Critical SPR investigations into purported mediums and the exposure of fake mediums led to a number of resignations in the 1880s by Spiritualist members, but the Society continued to investigate mediums, studying Leonora Piper and Eusapia Palladino among others.Fielding,e., Baggaly, W and Carrington, H (1909) Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research:23, p.306-569 In 1885 the report of the Committee on Theosophical Phenomena expressed the opinion that the founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Petrova Blavatsky, was "neither the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor... a mere vulgar adventuress; we think she has achieved title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious and interesting imposters in history".Report cited in Grattan-Guinness, I. (1982) Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles & Practices, p. 23 This report, which had a marked effect on Theosophy, remains as with all SPR reports the opinion of the member concerned; the SPR holds no corporate opinions.Harrison, Vernon (1997) H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR. ISBN 1-55700-119-7 It gained the SPR a reputation for being scientific and highly critical. Mrs Salter recorded W. B. Yeats as saying "It's my belief that if you psychical researchers had been about when God Almighty was creating the world, he couldn't have done the job".cited in Grattan-Guinness, I. (1982Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles & Practices'', p. 23 The SPR is frequently referred to in Victorian and Edwardian literature as "the Psychical Research Society". The term psychical was adopted to distinguish the purported phenomena from those classified as psychic, (that is simply mental processes such as thought, memory, etc.) and the SPR were to introduce a number of other neologisms which have entered the English language, such as 'telepathy', which was coined by Frederic Myers. Today The Society is run by a President and a Council of twenty members, and is open to interested members of the public to join. The organisation is based at 49 Marloes Road, Kensington, London, with a library and office open to members, and with large archival holdings in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It publishes the peer reviewed quarterly Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR), the irregular Proceedings and the magazine Paranormal Review. It holds an annual conference, regular lectures and two study days per yearEdinburgh University Website and supports the LEXSCIEN on-line library project. The SPR states its principal aim as "understanding events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area." It does not however, since its inception in 1882, hold any corporate opinions: SPR members have a variety of beliefs or lack thereof about the reality and nature of the phenomena studied, and many prominent sceptics have been active members of the Society. Notable members Past and current notable members of the SPR include Henry Sidgwick, Frederick Myers, Charles Dodgson, Alfred Russel Wallace, W. B. Yeats, C. G. Jung, William James, Arthur Balfour, Archie Roy, Rupert Sheldrake, Richard Wiseman, Susan Blackmore, Dean Radin, Alastair Sim, Peter Underwood and Charles Tart.Haynes, Renee (1982) The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History. London: MacDonald In 1893, the year that Arthur Balfour was president of the SPR the author Arthur Conan Doyle joined the society.Duncan, Alistair (2010) The Norwood Author - Arthur Conan Doyle & The Norwood Years (1891-1894) Investigators of spontaneous phenomena (hauntings, etc.) have included Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Grosse, who investigated reports of the Enfield Poltergeist.Playfair, G. L. & Grosse, M. (1988). "Enfield Revisited: the evaporation of positive evidence". Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55 pp. 208-219.Playfair, G. L. (1980). This House is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist. Stein & Day. and Tony Cornell who conducted extensive investigations over many decades. Other societies A number of other psychical research organisations use the term 'Society for Psychical Research' in their name. *Australia - In 1979 the Australian Society for Psychical Research was founded.http://members.ozemail.com.au/~amilani/ufo.html *Austria - Founded in 1927 as the Austrian Society for Psychical Research, today the Austrian Society for Parapsychology. *Canada - From 1908 to 1916 the Canadian Society for Psychical Research existed in Toronto.Stan (2004) Anatomy of a Séance: A History of Spirit Communication in Central Canada (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press), p. 87. *Denmark - Selskabet for Psykisk Forskning (The Danish Society for Psychical Research) was founded in 1905.http://www.parapsykologi.dk/ *France - In 1885, a society called the Société de Psychologie Physiologique (Society for Physiological Psychology) was formed by Charles Richet, Théodule-Armand Ribot and Léon Marillier. It existed until 1890 when it was abandoned due to lack of interest. Richet, Charles. Traité de Métapsychique. Bruxelles: Artha Production, 1994, p.63. ISBN 2-930111-00-3 *Netherlands - The Studievereniging voor Psychical Research (Dutch for Society for Psychical Research) was founded in 1917. *Poland - The Polish Society for Psychical Research was very active before the second world war.Stevenson and Weaver, (2005) A World in a Grain of Sand: The Clairvoyance of [[Stefan Ossowiecki], Jefferson, NC, and London, McFarland, ISBN 0-7864-2112-6] *Scotland - The Scottish Society for Psychical Research is active today.http://www.sspr.co.uk *Sweden - Sällskapet för Parapsykologisk Forskning (the Swedish Society for Parapsychological Research) was founded in 1948.http://parapsykologi.se/spf.html *USA - An American branch of the Society was formed as the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in 1885, which became independent in 1906.http://www.aspr.com/ A splinter group, the Boston Society for Psychical Research existed from May 1925 to 1941.Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991. See also *American Society for Psychical Research *International Association for Near-Death Studies *Parapsychological Association *List of parapsychology topics References External links * SPR home page Category:Paranormal investigators Category:Non-profit organisations based in the United Kingdom Category:Parapsychology Category:Organizations established in 1882 Category:1882 establishments in the United Kingdom